The introduction of a strike ballot process as suggested by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is gaining traction. Last Friday, Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani put his full weight behind the idea when Rothschild mining analyst Dr Fiona Perrott-Humphrey asked Anglo management to outline what they were doing to curb strike violence and halt the seeming war of attrition between rival unions. The question arose following Anglo’s presentation of its interim results, which saw its underlying operating profit decline 10% to $2.9-billion in the strike-hit six months to June 30. “Deputy President Ramaphosa made the observation yesterday that ballots should be considered. I think that would be a great step forward for the country,” Cutifani told mining analysts in London and Johannesburg. South Africa’s Department of Labour is reportedly considering making strike ballots compulsory and introducing arbitration to resolve protracted strikes. A feature of the latest Anglo interims was the strong performance of De Beers, which made a $765-million contribution to earnings, 30% higher than consensus.

Rand Refinery has secured R1.2-billion in backup loans to help it out of a potential tight spot. The who’s who of gold mining in South Africa came to the 94-year-old refinery’s aid with a precautionary, irrevocable loan facility. This follows the gold refiner suffering implementation difficulties after it had adopted a new enterprise resource planning software system, which resulted in an 87 000 oz difference between the actual gold inventory and the accounting records. While refining and smelting operations are said to be unaffected, uncertainty around the “true position” has prevented the company from being able to finalise statements for the financial year ended September 30, 2013.

Strike-hit Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) is capitalising its mechanised operations and disposing of its conventionally mined Rustenburg and Union mines. It will also exit the Pandora Joint Venture (JV) and is assessing the possibility of doing the same at Bokoni. Amplats, which is able to rely on eight years of underground mechanised mining experience at the Bathopele platinum mine, will continue giving much capital attention to its highly lucrative Mogalakwena openpit mine, in Limpopo, which has been mechanised since inception. Read on page 9 of this edition of Mining Weekly of the trackless Bathopele being well versed in mining upper group two reef with low-profile and extra-low- profile equipment suites.